November 2016

November 29, 2016

Diversity was a serious theme at Monday’s Gotham Awards, during a night of fun and celebration. Cipriani Wall Street was chockablock with film devotees: some filmmakers and new actors, discoveries, such as Anya Taylor-Joy who was awarded Breakthrough Actor for her work in The Witch. Moonlight, A24’s critical and popular hit, was awarded for Best Ensemble and Best Feature. Natalie Portman, whose performance as Jackie will surely garner nominations as the award season progresses, presented the statue. Pregnant with her second child, the Academy Award winning actress quipped, her baby is not due soon enough.

Patria O Muerte was featured at the recent New York Film Festival in October, with a panel discussion at screening’s end. Filmed over years with Garmendia creating clandestine ways of hiding her camera on the island known for censorship, she asked Claudio Fuentes to be her DP. Many at the panel wondered whether or not he would be allowed back into his country, as many of the interviews showed Cubans in poverty, unhappy with their lives. Getting these interviews seemed a remarkable feat. Julian Schnabel supported Garmendia’s project as executive producer. Garmentia worked with him on Before Night Falls, the 2000 film he directed based on poet Reinaldo Areinas’ book about his own great hopes for Castro’s revolution before Castro clamped down on gays.

November 25, 2016

Verna, a beautiful young woman from Grand Rapids, Indiana wants to be a star in Paramour, the Cirque du Soleil/ Broadway show at the Lyric Theater, conceived and directed by Philippe Decoufle. AJ, a Hollywood director (Jeremy Kushnier) discovers her and renames the redhead Indigo (Ruby Lewis), but he’s a devil and his attentions come with a price. From the show’s first spectacle, a dance and acrobatic number on golden stairs, Paramour’s story is old as the Hollywood Hills, but as AJ says, extolling the virtues of magic in the extravaganza opening number, all movies should have acrobats, and presto, Paramour does what Cirque du Soleil does best, create a dazzling show with juggling, gymnasts, and aerial stunts.

Peter Berg’s Patriots Day, a new feature on the Boston marathon bombing refreshes us on the details of terrorism through the eyes of a policeman working that day. Mark Wahlberg stars, portraying a composite character in a film hewing so close to the facts, that in a shootout with the two brothers who are known to have committed the horrendous act of planting homemade bombs in knapsacks along the race route finish line, he counted the gunshots and explosions in the soundtrack to make the explosive scene as authentic as possible. The result is thrilling, as nail biting and exciting as Berg’s Lone Survivor, or any film he’s made to date, enacting the bombing, carjacking, shootout, and capture of the younger bomber. At the Lotos Club on Monday, former NYC police commissioner Mike Kelley and many others joined Berg, Wahlberg, and Kevin Bacon, who plays FBI Special Agent in Charge of Boston, Richard DesLauriers, for a passionate discussion of Boston’s solidarity.

November 21, 2016

The mesmerizing scandal of Amanda Knox, the young American student on trial in Perugia for killing her British roommate, Meredith Kercher, returns in a documentary on Netflix by Rod Blackhurst and Brian McGinn called Amanda Knox. What more could we possibly need to know about this case of media mediated justice? I met the filmmakers on the morning after our American election to talk about their film, and suddenly the Amanda Knox story and the events in Italian courts since 2007 had immediate resonance.

November 20, 2016

The timing of Benjamin Ree’s documentary Magnus is pure genius. What can be better than watching a film about Magnus Carlson while the 2016 World Chess Championship is being contested at the South Seaport in New York City?

A vivid portrait of the 25-year-old world chess champion’s life, talent and dedication, the film offers a glimpse into his background. A child prodigy, Magnus’ incredible mind and memory are vividly displayed. At age 13, he drew with world champion Gary Kasparov. Albert Einstein, after discussions with the Russian chess great Mikhail Botvinnik immediately saw the infinite variations in chess and was puzzled why Botvinnik’s great mind put all this thought in this game. After seeing this film I had the same thought about Magnus. Why didn’t Magnus put his amazing mind to work curing cancer instead of touring and playing the eccentrics and other greats addicted to the game?

November 19, 2016

The new documentary Uncle Howard is an inspired compilation of recovered footage, interviews, a story of discovery by Aaron Brookner, a filmmaker who followed in his uncle’s craft. A passing of a baton, you could say, Uncle Howard reflects Aaron Brookner’s determination to ensure his uncle’s legacy. Aaron was seven when Howard Brookner, died of AIDS in 1989. Some family films show them together, a handsome, charming young man with a cute little boy.

November 15, 2016

The riveting documentary Disturbing the Peace takes a hard look at the Middle East conflict from the perspective of former enemy combatants, some of whom have spent significant prison time, who are now challenging the status quo and finding ways to shatter a destructive narrative of war. You’d think forging a path toward peace would be a boon to all. Last month, at the Hamptons International Film Festival, I had the opportunity to sit down with a delegation, filmmakers Stephen Apkon and Marcina Hale, and several of their subjects from Combatants for Peace: Sulaiman Khatib, Palestinian co-founder, Chen Alon and Avner Wishnitzer, Israeli co-founders, and Mohammed Ouedah, Palestinian General Director. Middle East politics arouse intense passions, but to engage with this group it became imperative to look beyond my own given history.

November 12, 2016

In the movie Arrival,Amy Adams plays Louise, a linguist dealing with some creatures from outer space in Denis Villaneuve’s parable bringing into our world beings from the beyond. They appear to be giant floaty plasma mushrooms and arrive in an ovoid structure with one part flat. An academic with some sorrow in her past, Louise is enlisted to communicate. Amidst a world of aggressive action against the unknown, the message in how she figures out their language is to behave with gentle caution, with heart open, and optimistic courage. In a movie that values the pleasures of compassion, Amy Adams is not your usual action hero.

November 11, 2016

Judy Collins ended her set at the Café Carlyle yesterday with Leonard Cohen’s “Suzanne,” a bittersweet homage to the Canadian novelist, composer, and performer—as it turned out. Of course “Suzanne,” from her 1966 album In My Life, is a standard part of her repertoire; it was only after her opening night that guests learned of Leonard Cohen’s death at 82, and looking back, this encore had special resonance.